Hijexx wrote:
Summary: A retired chemist and food plant manager converted his car to run on a vegetable oil / diesel blend. He has used it this way for the last four years.
He gets a visit one morning at his home from agents of the Illinois Department of Revenue. He is being investigated for criminal activity.
Turns out, Illinois wants him to pay retroactive fuel taxes on the vegetable oil. They also want him to apply for a license to become a special fuel supplier as well as a special fuel receiver. He also has to pay a $2500 bond as insurance that his "business" will pay the taxes in the future.
The State also sent him a cease and desist letter, threatening him with felony charges if he continued to operate his vehicle without giving the State their cut and dancing their dance.
Thankfully, there is a State Senator taking up his cause, but this is just patently wrong on its face. Why send agents out to someone's house who is trying to do the right thing? Why use that Gestapo tactic? I hate seeing people being bullied like that.
Worth a read, article has some good points.
This is a real issue. Those taxes fund roads and the state DOTs. I would expect as fuel technologies advance, we'll see tax laws adapt. It would be great if Congress got in front of this like they did with e-commerce and put in a moratorium for a good bit of time. In fact, I'd go so far as to wish for some of the existing gasoline tax be diverted into alternative fuel R&D budgets. You could probably double the current funding with about 1% of the current tax being diverted. I'm just guessing tho.
